


Journeys End in Lovers Meeting

by blueboxesandtrafficcones



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Does regeneration count as major character death?, F/F, F/M, Gen, Pete's World, Post-Episode: s01e08 Father's Day, Post-Episode: s04e13 Journey's End, Post-Episode: s04e17-e18 The End of Time, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, soul mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2018-12-23 22:46:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11999496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueboxesandtrafficcones/pseuds/blueboxesandtrafficcones
Summary: Every wise man's son doth know."The timer on Rose's wrist is suddenly at zero just after midnight, New Years Day 2005.  But where is her soul mate?A strange woman gives Rose hope.A tale of the Doctor and Rose, soulmates, told in 4 parts at different points in their journey.





	1. Rose

**Author's Note:**

> Written in part for Doctor/Rose Prompts on Tumblr. Week of 9/3/17: Canon ‘verse countdown clock where Rose’s clock jumps around all the time based on where the Doctor is in Time.
> 
> Title from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Entering the flat, Rose threw herself on the couch, feeling uncharacteristically glum. The New Year always made her contemplative, but something felt different this time. Sighing, she pulled up the sleeve of her jacket to scratch her wrist, which had started itching like crazy as she’d entered Bucknall House and run up the stairs. Out of habit, she glanced down to the timer inked onto her wrist to see if it had moved.

Like most children, the numbers had appeared shortly after birth. They ticked down, first from years, to months, all the way to the seconds before you first spoke to your soul mate. The number could easily change; scientists believed the countdown was based on most likely course - if you made a different decision, the number could reset. Therefore, most children would see, upon careful observation, some occasional slight fluctuation.

Not Rose Tyler. For Rose, it had never been consistent for more than a few days; several times, it came incredibly close to zero, and she’d stare with bated breath, one eye on her wrist, the other carefully scrutinizing everyone around her. But, in the end, it never hit. Nowadays, she barely checked it, except for when she was being sentimental. She tended to check on her birthday, and at the holidays, but spent most of her time ignoring it.

Because of this, she barely noted the digits before reaching for the remote to check the news. It took a few seconds for what was there to register, before she dropped the remote in shock to pull her sleeve back up.

Her eyes hadn’t lied. There, clear as day, sat the number she thought she’d never see.

00:00:00

Her mind scrambled, trying to figure out who she could have talked to for the first time. She’d checked before they left for the pub, and it still was months off; now, however, it was zero. She’d met him.

And she had no idea who he (she?) could be.

She leaned back on the couch, going over the night carefully, trying to figure out who she’d never spoken with before. She was idly scratching at the itch when the neighbor in the flat sharing a wall with their living room gave a great hacking cough and she bolted upright.

The bloke in the courtyard!

It was the only possible explanation, and Rose practically tripped over herself as she jumped up, rushing back out of the flat into the cold, hoping he’d ignored her advice and was, possibly, still there waiting for her.

Rose skidded out the door, wild eyes flicking about, trying to spot him. She wished, now, she’d paid more attention. He didn’t sound like he was from the Estate, but definitely (most likely) a Londoner. He was tall, she remembered that, but to her frustration that was all she could come up with.

Then she noticed the footprints in the snow, leading away from where he’d been standing back in the direction from which she’d originally come. Heart hammering, hope growing, she followed them only a few feet before she found, to her horror, more indentations in the snow, as though he’d fallen and struggled to get up.

Her eyes searched frantically, but she couldn’t see anyone. She tried calling out, but got no response, not even a groan.

Now extremely worried for him, this man, her soul mate, despite not even a minute’s conversation, she continued following his slow, painful looking footsteps right across the courtyard, until they stopped abruptly at another indentation in the light powder. This time, it looked almost like it had been made by a box, though that didn’t seem right – based on the size of the imprint, and the lack of other marks around it, it only seemed possible for the indent if the box had somehow materialized right there, or something.

At the thought, the ridiculousness of the moment struck Rose and she bent almost double, laughing, until it turned to sobs.

“All right?”

Rose’s head jerked up, not having realized she was no longer alone.

“Um, yeah, thanks.” She told the woman politely, wiping at her cheeks.

The woman hesitated, before holding out a handkerchief to her. Rose took it, embarrassed when she saw how much of her makeup was left on the white linen after she wiped her eyes.

“If you don’t mind,” the woman said gently, and Rose realized with a start she seemed Northern, “you don’t seem to be all right.”

Rose worried her lip, before deciding she had nothing to lose. Maybe the woman had even seen her soul mate!

“I’m worried. I – I just met my soul mate, just over there,” she gestured vaguely back to where she'd talked to him, “and I didn’t realize it until I was inside, but by the time I did and came back out, he was gone. Only, he didn’t sound good – like he was sick, or drunk, or something. And I want to find him, and I don’t see where he went, and what if he’s hurt?”

Unbidden, the tears quickly returned, and Rose tried desperately to stem them with the dirty handkerchief.

“I’m sorry.” To Rose’s slight surprise, the woman sounded not only sorry, but almost devastated for her. “I’m sure he’ll be okay eventually.”

“You think?” The woman sounded so certain, Rose allowed herself a bit of hope.

“I know so.”

“Think I’ll see him again?” Deciding to accept the woman at face value, Rose slowly turned back to her building, the woman falling in step next to her.

“Absolutely.” She promised, and Rose felt better at her conviction.

“He did say he thought I was going to have a really great year…” She mused, almost to herself. The woman laughed.

“I’m quite sure you will.” She was so sure; about as sure as Rose’s soul mate had sounded. It already had Rose looking forward to meeting him properly.

Soon enough, they reached the door to Rose’s building, and the other woman stopped, looking at the door with a strange, almost longing, look on her face.

“Well, thanks.” Rose said, gesturing vaguely. Remembering the handkerchief, she held it out with a grimace. “Uh, sorry, it’s-”

“It’s fine.” The mysterious woman interrupted. “Keep it.”

“Sure?” Still, Rose hesitated.

The woman nodded, smiling warmly. “All yours.”

“All right.” Balling it up, clutching it tightly in her hand, Rose crossed her arms across her chest. “Well, good night.”

“Good night.” The words were soft, and she looked as though she wanted to say something more, but ultimately stayed silent.

Rose was halfway through the door when a thought occurred to her, and she poked her head back out, not really surprised the woman was still there.

“I’m gonna see him again?”

“You will.” The woman laughed when Rose blushed.

“And it’s gonna be a good year?” She’d had multiple assurances, but the way the first hour of the year had gone, she still need to hear it again.

“No.” There was a mischievous look on the woman’s face, as though she was sharing an inside joke. “Do you know what it’s gonna be?”

“What?”

The woman gave her a wide, happy grin, though she still looked a bit nostalgic.

“Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.”


	2. The Doctor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor ruminates on his own soulmark.

The mark had always been there on his wrist, from the day he emerged from the Looms.  Soul mates weren’t very common amongst Gallifreyans, they were considered too primitive, but a few had them.  What was common, however, was to be fully covered, from neck to wrist to ankles.  This allowed him to hide his timer during most of his childhood.  It got out at the Academy, of course, these things always do, but with careful tailoring of his clothes, it was usually hidden.

It had always stood at 99:99:99 for as long as he could remember, never fluctuating.  He would occasionally check as a child, but as he grew older and graduated from the Academy, he began to go decades without even thinking of it.

That changed the day he liberated his precious Arkytior from the Academy, stole a decommissioned TARDIS, and ran away.  Moments into their flight, he leaned over to adjust a control and his sleeve rose up. It was the movement that caught his eye; where once had been all nines was a constant rotation of numbers, never settling.  He stared at it in shock, hardly daring to believe his eyes.  Eventually, his granddaughter jolted his attention, and he managed to land them on the planet they had always talked of visiting – Sol 3, in Mutter’s Spiral. As they stepped outside to explore this brand new planet, he subtly checked his timer; now, it listed 41:06:04. That was obviously years away, but it was the closest it had ever been.

As time passed, and companions came and went, never mind the regenerations, he would occasionally check the mark.  He found that it was typically closest on that strange blue and green planet, which led to him spending much of his time there.  When the other Time Lords banished him, one of his first thoughts was to the mark – perhaps this would be when they would meet?

Time continued its unrelenting march, however, and eventually, after the War, he found himself hunting Autons in his beloved London.  It was a truly unremarkable moment; he had, by rote, checked the mark as he began laying the explosives on the roof of that shop, and it still listed a far-off date.

Two hours later, back in the TARDIS trying to trace the signal to the Consciousness, his sleeve rode up, and he absently noted the zeroes, before freezing in place. Pushing the sleeve up fully in disbelief, he studied the digits there, unable to believe that after so many centuries of wanting, of wishing, of  _waiting_ , he had found his mate without even knowing.

It only took moments for him to realize that there was only one possibility; that young girl, the one who suspected students, what was her – oh, that was right – Rose.

_Rose._

_And wasn’t there irony in that?_   He thought, thinking back to Susan.  The one who had known, who had encouraged him to find his mate, would share her name with that partner.

In the end, he wasn’t surprised she said ‘no’.  None of the good he did, the lives he saved, could ever come close to atoning for his sins. He already loved her enough to want her to be happy, thinking that she deserved more than an old, broken alien. Besides – just because she was his soul mate, didn’t guarantee that he was hers.  Though most of the mated couples did match to each other, there were always exceptions.  He, naturally, appeared to be one.

Eventually, he went back to offer again, and she ran into the TARDIS.  He spent months after that trying to treat her the way she deserved; he rarely succeeded, but he tried, to the point he was desperate to please her, to make her happy – after all, she was his soul mate.  That was how he found himself in 1987 in an impossible situation, willing to forgive her truly anything.

They made it out, together, and that night he held her in the library while she cried.  In time she calmed, and was able to sit up straight on the couch, though she didn’t move far from his embrace.

“Did you know they were soul mates?”  She sniffed, patting her eyes dry with a tissue.

“Really?”  This was the first time the topic had come up, and he was intrigued – he knew he belonged to her, but did she to him?

Rose nodded. “Yep.  Can you image, losing your soul mate at twenty-two?  It’s why she’s never remarried – sure, she’s had plenty of blokes, but none were serious.  It was always him – it was  _only_  him.”  She played with her mug while he tried to come up with a response.

“Do you have one?”  It was far more common amongst humans than Time Lords, he knew, but it was no guarantee.

She let out a shuddering breath.  “Yeah.”  There seemed to be a story there, and he couldn’t help but want to know.  He was still trying to figure out how to ask when she volunteered the information.

“I met him this past New Years.  Didn’t know it was him until after – I tried to find him again, but he was just… gone. Haven’t seen him since.”  She peered up at him from beneath her lashes. “’S why I hesitated – I didn’t think I’d find him travelling with you.”

“Ah.”  He shifted, desperately uncomfortable and devastated. “Do you-” He couldn’t bring himself to complete the offer, but she seemed to understand.

“No, I want to stay here, with you – I’ll find him when I’m meant to.  And if he can’t understand – well, then maybe he’s not my soul mate after all.”  She raised her chin, giving him a determined look.  “This is where I want to be, where I’m meant to be.  You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”  She gave him that tongue-touched smile he loved, before snuggling back down into his arms.

He knew he should get up, leave her be, if not take her right home.  But the selfish, tired,  _angry_  part of his soul refused to – after all, she was his soul mate, even if he was not hers.

It is not until years later, when he forces his aching, dying body to stand up straight and wait for one last glimpse of her, when she laughs at his perceived drunkenness and tells him  _January the first, two thousand and five_ , that he understands.

Throughout his life, the universe has stolen many beloved things from him, none the least being his granddaughter and their planet; but no loss, no pain, could compare to this. To realize that all along, they truly had belonged to each other, and it was only his selfish need to see her one more time that meant she was not claimed as he was at their first meeting.

In the end, it was the same age old truth – he had no one but himself to blame.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A plot bunny bit me, and this will have all told 4 chapters. Thanks for reading!


	3. Pete's World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revelations abound at dinner in Pete's World, and two broken hearts see what's been staring them in the face since 'Run'.

It took him two weeks to work up the nerve to ask.  He didn’t realize he was being so obvious until Rose cracked one night during dinner.

“If there’s something on your mind, Doctor, do you plan to share it this decade?”

Blinking in surprise at her outburst, the Doctor momentarily resembled a goldfish.

“Does it bother you, that you’ll never find your soulmate again?”

“Again?”  Jackie interrupted before Rose could even begin to answer.  “What do you mean, again?  Rose?”

Rose went to answer before her eyes narrowed at the Doctor.  “What about you?  Do you have a soulmate?”  She challenged.

He hesitated.  “Not the point.  Rose-”

“So you do!”  She leaned back in surprise.  “Did you ever find them?”

He gazed at her in consideration, before shrugging.  “Yes.  You.”

“Who?”  She asked, ignoring his perceived deflection, so used to him not _telling_ her anything.

He smiled.  “No, Rose, I mean – it’s you.  You’re my soulmate.”

Her jaw dropped, and she simply stared at him, ignoring her mother’s continued questions, finally managing a quiet, “Oh.”

“Yeah.”  He agreed wryly, absent-mindedly rubbing at his mark.  “And you?”

Rose frowned, reviewing again the memory of her short encounter with her soulmate, and the woman just after.  When the pieces suddenly crystalized into a clear picture, she bolted upright.

“Can you regenerate into a woman?”

“What?”  Thrown by the abrupt change of topic, the Doctor frowned.  “Rose-”

“Can you?”  She repeated, waiting with baited breath.

“It’s certainly possible, I know others had, but I haven’t.  Yet, at least.”  He leaned back in his seat, considering.  “Why?”

Rose beamed at him in response.  “Then I’m fairly certain I _will_ get to spend my life with my soulmate.”  She relished in the lost look on his face – so rarely did she have all the answers while he was in the dark.  It reminded her of the day after they met, standing on the bank of the river, looking at the London Eye.

“When did you meet your soulmate?”  Jackie shouted.

“Indoor voice, Mummy.”  Little Tony piped up from where he sat almost forgotten next to his father, picking at his food.  Jackie didn’t look at him, too focused on her daughter at the moment.

Rose shrugged.  “Years ago now.  New Years, 2005.”  Her eyes sparkled, and she had a radiant smile.  Jackie could never remember seeing her so happy, not since before Canary Wharf.

“You look fairly happy for someone whose soulmate is an entire universe away.”  Pete commented, watching his daughter with a critical eye.  Seeing his lips twitch, Rose knew he must have put the pieces together, even if Jackie and the Doctor had not.

“What makes you think it’s not you?”  Rose asked her partner, and he raised an eyebrow.

“You just said – you’d already met them before you met me.”  He reminded her.

“True.”  Rose couldn’t help the smirk if she tried.  “But I think you’re forgetting something, Doctor.  And shame on you – it’s only been two weeks.”

“What?”  The Doctor’s patience was fading fast, and his snap came out harsher than intended.  But Rose, his darling Rose, knew him better than to take offense.

“Do you remember what you said?”  She teased.

“Rose – I say lots of things.  Bit known for having a gob, me.”

“What you said to convince me to travel with you.  Though to be fair, you could’ve said just about anything at that point.”

“What, you mean – ‘it also travels in time’?”  The Doctor asked, brows furrowing in confusion.

Rose only gave him that tongue in cheek smile he loved so much, and let him think it through.

Eventually, the penny dropped and his eyes widened comically.

“You think-”  He breathed, his hope palpable.

“What?!”  Jackie roared, and they all turned to look at her.

Rose rolled her eyes at her mother.  “Right.  Okay, do you remember that?  New Years, 2005?”

“Jimbo was supposed to give us a ride home, wasn’t he?  We had to walk instead.”  Jackie frowned.

“Yeah, exactly.  You went off, and I went home.  Only, see, I was halfway across the courtyard when somebody groaned.  I turned around, and there was a bloke hidden in the shadows.  I asked if he was all right, he said he was.  Asked if he was drunk, said he was.  Told him he should probably go home.”  She paused, reliving the way he said _yeah_ , seeing it in a new light now.  “I, uh, wished him a happy new year – and he asked what year it was!  I laughed at him.  Told him it was 2005.” 

She swallowed hard, remembering the precious little of the conversation that came after.  “He told me – he said, ‘I bet you’re gonna have a really great year.’  But the way he said it, you know?”  She sniffed, looking into the distance as though she could see the moment in real time.

“And that was your soulmate?”  Jackie asked skeptically.  Rose nodded.

“Yep.  Realized when I got back to the flat.  When back to find him, only he was gone.”

“That’s odd.”  Jackie frowned.  “Wouldn’t he realize as well that you were his soulmate?  Why wouldn’t he stick around?”  Pete, Rose, and the Doctor simply stared at her, all having already understood.

“I think he did – sort of.  Or more accurately, came back.”  Rose laughed at the confused look on her mother’s face.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I tried to find him, and I couldn’t, and I started getting worked up, you know – what if something was wrong?  And this woman, this beautiful, Northern blonde woman walked up and started talking to me, and she just had this look on her face, the whole time…”  Rose remembered.  “It was, well, just like you’re looking at me know.”  She informed the Doctor.  “And I told her what was going on, and she told me that he’d be fine, and we’d find each other.”

“And you think that was…”  the Doctor trailed off, implication clear.

 “Yep.  Cause I told her about what he said – about the year I’d have – and I asked her if she agreed, and she said no.”  Rose smirked.  “She said instead that it was going to be-”

“-Fantastic.”  They finished together, smile at each other like idiots, lost in their own world.  As always, it was Jackie who burst the bubble.

“Well, that’s all well and good, but I still don’t understand.”  She complained, and the Doctor took up the mantle.

“It was me.”  He let out a disbelieving laugh.  “The bloke in the shadows, it must have been me – this me, well, the Time Lord version of this me.  Only reason to hide – you wouldn’t know if it was another body.  He must have been regenerating, from something slow I bet, to have time to talk.  That must have been the next version.  Blimely, a woman.  First time for everything, I suppose.”  The Doctor frowned.  “Blonde, you said?”  Rose hummed in reply.  “Ugh.  Why blonde _again_?”

Pete raised an eyebrow.  “You’re more upset over becoming blonde than becoming a woman?”  He wanted to know, and the Doctor scoffed.

“Pete, my society was far beyond things such as gender, and stereotypes.  I go along with your social conventions based on my physicality because it’s easier, but that wasn’t how it was on Gallifrey.”

“Anyway…”  Rose steered the topic away.  “My point is, I assume that was you – and how it took me this long to figure it out I’ll never know – but that’s when my timer stopped, because that was my first meeting with you.  But yours wasn’t until March, three months later.”

The Doctor shook his head, almost unable to believe what he was hearing.  To think of the many long years he spent wishing, and wanting, when they truly had belonged to each other all along.

He felt a stab of sympathy for his other self, the full Time Lord who would have to spend centuries without their soulmate, without _Rose_ , after waiting so long to find her.  But that sympathy was quickly overtaken by the joy of knowing that despite his feelings of inadequacy, the universe had decided he and Rose truly belonged together.

Of everything that time and the universe had taken from him, Rose was the one he was happiest to get a second chance with.


	4. Thirteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was days like this that reminded the Doctor why crossing their own timeline was such an awful, brilliant, painful, wonderful idea.
> 
> 13's pov of the first chapter.

The Doctor lurked in the shadows across the courtyard, watching their past self of more than a millennia ago struggle against the radiation, waiting for one last glimpse of their beloved with those eyes.  Just as they had told Amy so many centuries before, the first face that face saw held special power, but none ever more so than Rose Tyler’s.

Rubbing at the soulmark on their wrist, the Doctor drew back further into the shadows as Rose and Jackie made their way into the square, chatting momentarily before parting ways.  Holding their breath, the Doctor shifted as close as they could, desperate to see that precious moment from the outside.

They had known from _Run_ that Rose was their soulmate.  The mark on their wrist had said so plain as day, but it was more the full feeling in their hearts when they looked at that bright, young girl, so full of life, that proved it over and over again.  And yet, in those three years they had traveled together and the four they spent without her, they had always known, deep down, that she didn’t belong to them.  She’d said so, after that disastrous day in 1987; she’d met her mate on New Years, 2005.  He’d only been 3 months too late – though, wasn’t that the story of his life?

It wasn’t until the final stop of pinstripes’ goodbye tour, when he was too weak and in pain to pick a date, and just asked the TARDIS to take him home.  The moment he stepped out into snow, he had an inkling, but it wasn’t until she said, “January the first, 2005”, that he truly understood.

Watching the moment from so far away, both in time and distance, the Doctor felt their hearts break once again at the loss even as they marveled at the irony.  How would things have changed, had they known when they still had her?  Would they have opened up to her, let her in, claimed her?  They had spent most of that time burying their feelings behind her having already found her mate; where could they have hidden if they’d known the truth?

Helpless, forced to watch things play out just as they remembered, the Doctor watched their younger self stare longingly after Rose, before staggering back to the TARDIS to regenerate.  Despite the pain pinstripes was feeling, the older Doctor couldn’t help but smile to remember that only minutes from then, that newly regenerated Doctor would crash in the yard of a small Scottish child, and spend the next centuries flitting in and out of the Ponds’ lives.

Their past self now gone in several ways, the Doctor slowly headed away towards their own TARDIS.  Just as they were about to exit onto the street, they heard the door to the building open behind them.  Spinning around, coat still flapping satisfactorily, they stared with wide eyes as Rose burst into the courtyard.  Holding her wrist, she turned her head frantically, running a few steps to either side as if trying to find pinstripes.

“Hello?”  They heard her call uncertainly.  “Uh, sir, are you still there?”  The Doctor saw the moment she noticed the footprints, and saw her carefully follow them over to where the TARDIS had been parked, stopping where he had collapsed.

“Please, are you there?  I can help!”  She tried again, desperation clear in her voice.  She continued through the snow, coming to a stop just in front of where the TARDIS doors had been.  Suddenly, she started laughing, though it quickly turned to sobs as she bent double.

The Doctor had been determined to keep their distance, to not interact, but they had never been able to resist Rose Tyler crying, and before they knew it, were almost upon her.

“All right?”

Startled, her head shot up and she swiped ineffectively at the tears on her face.

“Um, yeah, thanks.”  Anyone could see she was lying, and the Doctor momentarily considered leaving her in peace.  Then they remembered Kazran – O _ne last day with your beloved.  What day would you choose?_   No matter the consequences, they could never leave Rose willingly.  Accepting that fact, they quickly pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her.

“If you don’t mind, you don’t seem to be all right.”  The Doctor pleaded with their eyes for Rose to trust them, to let them in.  They may have been out of sync, but they were the Doctor and she was Rose and their very souls called to the other.  Plus, they were having a very difficult time concentrating on anything but the way Rose was biting her lip.

While Rose gave a brief synopsis, the Doctor couldn’t help but fall even more in love with the woman in front of them.  One of the first things they had ever appreciated about Rose was her compassion, and it was abundant in the way she spoke about the soulmate she knew nothing about.

The Doctor’s hearts broke when her tears returned.  “I’m sorry.”  They whispered, not just as a response to Rose’s worry.  It was for all of the pain Rose suffered because of them, for the way their story would end.  Hopefully, she would be happy with the metacrisis, and wouldn’t think of this them, the fully Time Lord Doctor too much.

They headed back towards the door to Rose’s building, the Doctor doing their best to comfort Rose without letting anything slip.  Soon enough, they reached the doorway and came to a halt.  Rose glanced at them nervously, while it took all they had not to beg for an invitation upstairs, not to throw their arms around Rose and never let her go.  _One of the good things about this new, female body_ , the Doctor thought wryly, _is it would be far less creepy if I hug her tight._

The Doctor tried to simultaneously end the conversation as quickly as possible while dragging it out, treasuring these last few moments with Rose.

Finally, they said goodnight, and Rose went inside.  Before she could disappear, however, she returned to ask again if it was going to be a good year.

The Doctor couldn’t help it; knowing that the reference would go over Rose’s head, they hoped that someday in Pete’s World, she and the metacrisis would discuss this, and it would help reassure Rose that she was with her soulmate after all.

“Fantastic.  Absolutely fantastic.”

Rose smiled brightly back, heading back inside and bounding up the stairs.  The moment she was out of sight, the smile fell, and the Doctor quickly turned away, determined to get to the TARDIS before they could do something stupid like follow her.

Wandering through Powell Estate for what absolutely had to be the last time, the Doctor allowed themself to drown in memories of their precious pink and yellow girl as they had not in centuries.  Pausing once again at the corner, they looked up for a final view of that flat.

Heart full with the knowledge of Rose’s truly unconditional love, they snapped their fingers to open the TARDIS doors, and entered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is the end. Thanks for coming on this journey with me!

**Author's Note:**

> Toying with the idea of a chapter based around Nine.


End file.
